Mindanaotoday.com |Orgs from Davao, Ozamiz join protest vs firm’s fossil gas expansion
By: Jigger Jerusalem
Joining a collective of environmental advocates from all over the country, the Mindanao-based group PALAG NA! Thinks San Miguel Corporation’s (SMC) planned expansion of its fossil gas facilities is “environmentally destructive.”
In a solidarity statement, PALAG NA! said Mindanao already has its share of coal-fired power plants operating and the fossil gas expansion would further degrade the environment.
“We condemn SMC and all its subsidiaries for all of their environmentally destructive projects and pretensions at leading the country’s charge towards a genuine renewable energy pathway. Mindanao already has an unfortunate abundance of coal – would we also be doomed to be tied to fossil gas? If SMC truly is committed to their credo of a ‘world made better,’ then we demand better. We call on SMC, its stakeholders, and the government to scrap all fossil gas and LNG power projects,” the PALAG NA! Ozamiz and Davao chapters said in a joint statement.
The concerned groups are essentially telling SMC that forcing the burden of more dirty and costly energy on Filipinos “goes against its credo for a ‘world made better.’”
With SMC’s planned expansion of its fossil gas investment, the environmental advocates have expressed their indignation saying the company is no longer iconic for its beer, but as the biggest developer of fossil gas in the Philippines and Southeast Asia with over 14-gigawatt new fossil gas capacity it is proposing.
During a recent protest action in Mandaluyong City held Tuesday, June 14, groups led by the Power for People Coalition (P4) and Protect VIP trooped to the SMC headquarters to express their opposition to the conglomerate’s new project.
From a predominantly coal-based power sector, the Philippines is looking to increase its use of fossil gas and LNG – the Department of Energy’s new “preferred fuel.”
“As SMC’s stockholders meeting today, we wonder if the hardships they bring with their fossil gas projects ever figure in their discussions – or if SMC’s rising revenues are all that matter. As one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines, SMC has the ability to influence the quality of life of Filipinos. They should be held accountable if they negatively use it to promote detrimental and costly energy,” added Arances.
Dubbed as a “clean” alternative to coal, fossil gas and its supercooled form liquefied natural gas (LNG) is being touted as a “transition” fuel amidst calls for a renewable energy shift in recent years due to global climate targets.
“Fossil gas technologies would operate for a minimum number of 25-35 years, effectively stalling the actual development of genuine renewable energy infrastructures in Negros Occidental and other islands, taking the Philippines on a detour away from a real clean energy transition amidst worsening climate impacts,” said Bianca Montilla from Youth for Climate Hope (Y4CH) in Negros Occidental, where SMC is seeking to build a 300-megawatt LNG plant.
This includes the Tanon Strait between Cebu and Negros and the Verde Island Passage in Batangas, a marine corridor known as the “Center of the Center” of marine shore fish biodiversity in the world.
“SMC and other proponents are parading their shift from coal to gas as a shift towards cleaner energy, but the reality is they are merely switching lanes while driving us down the same road of climate and environmental destruction. As a member of the youth of a province set to lose the most from threats of fossil gas to our precious biodiversity, we will continue fighting to protect the Verde Island Passage and ensure a more sustainable future for all of us,” said TJ Alcantara, convenor of ECOSILAK – Youth for VIP, a group belonging to the Protect Verde Island Passage (Protect VIP) network.
The protest in Mandaluyong with P4P, Protect VIP, and faith-based group Living Laudato Si’ was thus held alongside actions led by ECOSILAK-Youth for VIP in Batangas; PALAG Na! in Ozamiz and Davao City in Mindanao; Konsyumer Negros and Youth for Climate Hope in Negros Occidental; SM-ZOTO in Navotas, Freedom from Debt Coalition in Tabango, Leyte; and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, KPML, Sanlakas, and Partido Lakas ng Masa in Cebu.
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